Not really a boss, but the dragon you fight before Abazigal was impossible to the point of frustration.Whenever I would start at TOB without importing a game/character I would get stuck there and have to tone down the difficulty to have any chance.
your going to laugh at me for this but: when you fight tyromafar in NWN: SoU the white dragon, i dont know if its just me not preparing right but every time a buff against cold and physical damage where i can he always smashes through me defences and beats me up (even when i us the Frost Phylactery) its crazy, the other bosses were hard (the ones iv'e played) but this dragon just destroys me constantly, i keep the dwarf cleric with me and the dragon eats her so im left with no healing, cant heal myself as i cant use magic and all the cue wounds potions dont cure damage fast enough. ive beaten him many times but ive never one shotted him.
Demogorgon, unless you implement cheese, is probably the toughest straight-up strategic fight in the game.
Demi-liches just aren't strategic. They're more of a puzzle than an actual fight, since if you have the proper tools to kill them and the proper protections against them, they pose zero threat. Same for Karoug.
I'm kind of surprised how many people list Karoug. He is a tough opponent, it's true. But once you know the trick to killing him, he isn't really that much harder than anyone else.
That's the problem, you need to have a trick. There are I think only 4 weapons that can hurt him, and only two are available on the island, so you're kind of screwed if you didn't bring the right ones along. It also sucks when you don't even have any characters with those proficiencies (at least in the EE. In the original, the weapons were grouped together, so you weren't nearly as screwed over with proficiencies), and you have to rely on really high rolls. You need to get a lot of high rolls in a short time, however, because that little ***** has regeneration to go with his near weapon immunity. You also encounter him with a bunch of his friends.
He's so much tougher than any other BG1 boss in my experience. Doom Guard, Sarevok, and Aec'Letec were all so much easier for me to deal with. Karoug took me around 10 tries because of my party composition (no one had bastard swords or daggers). I didn't know ahead of time (I never did TotSC back in the day), and I didn't want to look up guides to spoil the adventure. Gah, I'm starting to wish I had.
But literally two of the weapons are found within about 50 feet of the encounter. And the descriptions of both of these items include some indication that is what they are used for. Plus there is a fair amount of foreshadowing in game that you need something special to kill him. And pretty much everyone IRL has heard that werewolves require something special to kill. Just sayin', after the first couple of rounds and not being able to hurt him where you would normally be slaughtering stuff easily, I'd have started questioning things and started looking for alternatives.
As for the proficiency issue, not that I am trying to defend the developers choices, BUT... just because a fighter doesn't have proficiency in a weapon type, doesn't mean they can't use that weapon type to deadly effect. Yeah, you get a minus to hit, but by that point most of your fighters are hitting THAC0 on mid to low single digits at least anyway. I'm not saying put Xzar in the front ranks with the dagger, but give the Dagger to Dorn or Minsc or Kivan or Ajantis and they will still hit more often than they will miss.
And unless I am remembering wrong, he isn't even immune to wand of paralysis. So paralyze him, find the sword. then you have two characters whacking away and killing him should be pretty easy, relatively. It is intended to be a tough battle, but he isn't throwing around insta-kill spells the way Alec'Letec does.
but fair enough. There were probably quite a few battles that I had which were tough for me that maybe others found crazy easy. it's all perspective and its all in fun. No offense intended.
Not really a boss, but the dragon you fight before Abazigal was impossible to the point of frustration.Whenever I would start at TOB without importing a game/character I would get stuck there and have to tone down the difficulty to have any chance.
He is not that hard if you remove his protections with pierce magic, breach while he is in dragon form. You can also use summons before dragon form to make it even easier
Hmmm, I wonder why Aec'Letec is so low, it is the only side boss I have not been able to beat as of yet. I am also curious as to why Demogorgon is so high, since you can take him out very fast.
I actually beat Aec'Letec on my second try... I dunno, he just didn't seem that challenging. First time, I had no idea he could hold person, and when I (barely) managed to kill him with half my party held, I found out he would be reborn in one of the other cultist. Knowing that, I was able to take him out the second time... just gave everyone haste, and freedom granting abilities (not enough to go around sadly), and then killed the spellcaster right away (she goes down FAST), then chased him around with an archer while the rest of my guys take out the cultists. Once the cultists died, a hasted archerPC, Dorn, and Branwen (19 strength from the belt) were able to murder him without too much trouble). Still lost two party members, but whatever, they were easy enough to revive.
Also, for everyone listing the ToB bosses, remember this is for bonus bosses, i.e. ones that you don't have to defeat to beat the game.
Hmmm, I wonder why Aec'Letec is so low, it is the only side boss I have not been able to beat as of yet. I am also curious as to why Demogorgon is so high, since you can take him out very fast.
Not really a boss, but the dragon you fight before Abazigal was impossible to the point of frustration.Whenever I would start at TOB without importing a game/character I would get stuck there and have to tone down the difficulty to have any chance.
Oh, I remember that guy. Puts on all these buffs, then uses Magic immunity: abjuration to make him immune to dispel effects My strategy was just running around until the most annoying spells wore off :P
But, he's not a bonus boss, so I wouldn't count him.
Kangaxx was so difficult to beat the first time around; I had to retry dozens of times before I actually could beat him. The fight was incredibly fun and exhilirating, I had to make every decision count.
Demogorgon wasn't so bad once I realized that having a mage focus on keeping his defenses down took a lot of the bite out of him. Karoug, on the other hand... God, I must have reloaded that fight ten times the first time I tried him. It seemed like nothing HURT him, and I was trying to get through without any FAQs, so I had to puzzle out his weak spots on my own. Combined with his annoying helpers and the tiny space you fight him in, he was just a frustrating mess.
Unless an enemy mage type boss is immune to level 5 spells, True Sight and Breach are all it takes to kill them. I need to try watchers keep again with my custom group.
Demogorgon with Vanilla game = Easyyyy..this is the prince of demons?
Demogorgon with Ascension/SCSII = Omfg I finally brought his health down to half, oh SHIT he's regenerating fast and he suddenly re-summoned the high level monsters (that are like a boss of their own) and his shit does too much damage / status effects..oh fuck...i'm dead..this is hopeless...let's just use the scroll.
Not really a boss, but the dragon you fight before Abazigal was impossible to the point of frustration.Whenever I would start at TOB without importing a game/character I would get stuck there and have to tone down the difficulty to have any chance.
He is not that hard if you remove his protections with pierce magic, breach while he is in dragon form. You can also use summons before dragon form to make it even easier
I'd be interested to see how you do that. Every time I fought him, he uses unlimited invisibility and becomes untargetable. Also, any summonables that exist prior to his changing form, go away when he does. At least that is always the way it works when I fight him.
Not really a boss, but the dragon you fight before Abazigal was impossible to the point of frustration.Whenever I would start at TOB without importing a game/character I would get stuck there and have to tone down the difficulty to have any chance.
He is not that hard if you remove his protections with pierce magic, breach while he is in dragon form. You can also use summons before dragon form to make it even easier
I'd be interested to see how you do that. Every time I fought him, he uses unlimited invisibility and becomes untargetable. Also, any summonables that exist prior to his changing form, go away when he does. At least that is always the way it works when I fight him.
Summons are for pre-dragon phase to let you save your spells to dragon. You can remove untargetable for spells with true sight.
Not really a boss, but the dragon you fight before Abazigal was impossible to the point of frustration.Whenever I would start at TOB without importing a game/character I would get stuck there and have to tone down the difficulty to have any chance.
He is not that hard if you remove his protections with pierce magic, breach while he is in dragon form. You can also use summons before dragon form to make it even easier
I'd be interested to see how you do that. Every time I fought him, he uses unlimited invisibility and becomes untargetable. Also, any summonables that exist prior to his changing form, go away when he does. At least that is always the way it works when I fight him.
True sight is the first most important anti mage spell. Second is breach.
Even though I voted the Lost Followers (because they were a PAIN!), I'd also have to say the Guardian Dragon in the Jungle of Chult. Hasted, envoking fear and spitting acid, took me many, many tries to finally defeat it.
Not really a boss, but the dragon you fight before Abazigal was impossible to the point of frustration.Whenever I would start at TOB without importing a game/character I would get stuck there and have to tone down the difficulty to have any chance.
He is not that hard if you remove his protections with pierce magic, breach while he is in dragon form. You can also use summons before dragon form to make it even easier
I'd be interested to see how you do that. Every time I fought him, he uses unlimited invisibility and becomes untargetable. Also, any summonables that exist prior to his changing form, go away when he does. At least that is always the way it works when I fight him.
True sight is the first most important anti mage spell. Second is breach.
I guess maybe I am not using True sight correctly. In that particular combat, although true sight will remove invisibility, it doesn't stop him from casting it. So as soon as I target him with a spell, say breach or pierce magic, he goes invisible and the spell cancels. And he does this every single time such that I don't ever get a chance to remove his protections. He ends up stomping on my party for a long time until his protections go down and I can start hitting back. He is by far my worst enemy now that I think about it.
Not really a boss, but the dragon you fight before Abazigal was impossible to the point of frustration.Whenever I would start at TOB without importing a game/character I would get stuck there and have to tone down the difficulty to have any chance.
He is not that hard if you remove his protections with pierce magic, breach while he is in dragon form. You can also use summons before dragon form to make it even easier
I'd be interested to see how you do that. Every time I fought him, he uses unlimited invisibility and becomes untargetable. Also, any summonables that exist prior to his changing form, go away when he does. At least that is always the way it works when I fight him.
True sight is the first most important anti mage spell. Second is breach.
I guess maybe I am not using True sight correctly. In that particular combat, although true sight will remove invisibility, it doesn't stop him from casting it. So as soon as I target him with a spell, say breach or pierce magic, he goes invisible and the spell cancels. And he does this every single time such that I don't ever get a chance to remove his protections. He ends up stomping on my party for a long time until his protections go down and I can start hitting back. He is by far my worst enemy now that I think about it.
He's my worst enemy too. I always try to beat every enemy without any NPC dying for roleplaying purposes, yet with him I find it impossible.
Surely He has to wait a turn before recasting improved invisibility?
Not sure if this would work as I cant remember much of TOB, but you should have level 9 spells by then. Have two casters in your group, a bard as one is good enough. Have one hit time stop > spellstrike (if he has spell protections) > breach > Energy Blades or MMM. After time stop ends have your characters pelt him with ranged weapons to interrupt spell casts except your second caster, who should cast a Power Word Silence immediately after the time stop ends. If silence doesnt work then just keep pelting him after all his buffs are gone.
In a custom group you can just use an archer with GWW for the purpose of preventing spells casting after time stop ends, and even killing casters fast without any additional help.
The battle that really gets me is that little sidequest where you collect the staff of the magi.
Perhaps others found a way of doing it without breaking a sweat, but perhaps I make it hard on myself as I literally charge off to get that staff as soon as possible.
Comments
Demi-liches just aren't strategic. They're more of a puzzle than an actual fight, since if you have the proper tools to kill them and the proper protections against them, they pose zero threat. Same for Karoug.
As for the proficiency issue, not that I am trying to defend the developers choices, BUT... just because a fighter doesn't have proficiency in a weapon type, doesn't mean they can't use that weapon type to deadly effect. Yeah, you get a minus to hit, but by that point most of your fighters are hitting THAC0 on mid to low single digits at least anyway. I'm not saying put Xzar in the front ranks with the dagger, but give the Dagger to Dorn or Minsc or Kivan or Ajantis and they will still hit more often than they will miss.
And unless I am remembering wrong, he isn't even immune to wand of paralysis. So paralyze him, find the sword. then you have two characters whacking away and killing him should be pretty easy, relatively. It is intended to be a tough battle, but he isn't throwing around insta-kill spells the way Alec'Letec does.
but fair enough. There were probably quite a few battles that I had which were tough for me that maybe others found crazy easy. it's all perspective and its all in fun. No offense intended.
I finished bg1ee and bg2ee by now and i can say...the "Planar Hunters" from blackpits 2 are the toughest of all.
You can also use summons before dragon form to make it even easier
Also, for everyone listing the ToB bosses, remember this is for bonus bosses, i.e. ones that you don't have to defeat to beat the game.
(last fight in the video).
But, he's not a bonus boss, so I wouldn't count him.
The fight was incredibly fun and exhilirating, I had to make every decision count.
Demogorgon with Ascension/SCSII = Omfg I finally brought his health down to half, oh SHIT he's regenerating fast and he suddenly re-summoned the high level monsters (that are like a boss of their own) and his shit does too much damage / status effects..oh fuck...i'm dead..this is hopeless...let's just use the scroll.
Nothing comes even close to this shit. The real battle starts around 3:40.
You can remove untargetable for spells with true sight.
True sight is the first most important anti mage spell. Second is breach.
Not sure if this would work as I cant remember much of TOB, but you should have level 9 spells by then. Have two casters in your group, a bard as one is good enough. Have one hit time stop > spellstrike (if he has spell protections) > breach > Energy Blades or MMM. After time stop ends have your characters pelt him with ranged weapons to interrupt spell casts except your second caster, who should cast a Power Word Silence immediately after the time stop ends. If silence doesnt work then just keep pelting him after all his buffs are gone.
In a custom group you can just use an archer with GWW for the purpose of preventing spells casting after time stop ends, and even killing casters fast without any additional help.
Perhaps others found a way of doing it without breaking a sweat, but perhaps I make it hard on myself as I literally charge off to get that staff as soon as possible.